The Dickinson press., 1887-04-23
THE GREEN DRAGON.

Here in Virginia City, the metropolis Of
Silverland, We have society known as the
Pacific Coast Pioneers. This society is conf
posc+l of the "od timers" of California No
man WHO arrived on the Pacific coast later
than 1859 is admitted to membership. The
Pioneers have fine hall, containing u cab
met of ores and minerals and Il large collcc-
ton of curositcs gathered in all parts of the
world. The hall is a place of daily resort for
all old Forty miners who find time hanging
heavy on their hands. With these men
stories of the carly dnysof gold digging in
California and adventures on the plains" are
always iii order. Even When the regular
monthly meetings ale held the amount of
business to l,e transacted is so small that ii
can he dispatched i'll few minutes, when all
present are ready for the yarn sIinning"
which almost invariably ensslcs.
AT the hai! a few evenings ago several OF
the ''od boys" as the Pioneers are lovingly
called by our Pacific coasters, We're tAlkin.
over early days in California. After mum
ber of Stories had been told Bud Crowncs', i,
member from "Oi Missouri" got the iluor.
II shall never forget my first ball in Cali
foriiia," said Bud. 1T was at Hangtown
Gow Piacerville), in 80. In crossill' the
plains we had al! kinds of bad luck We had
some of our hosscs stod by the lujullS and
some got alka!ied and iist materially dried up
inter nummies us they walked along. The
poor critters was nothin' hut skin and hone
All rlst hal bin cat outn EN- by the alkali
water and by the ;llsai they got i'll gnawing
inter the ground after the roots OF the grass,
off'n which the critters of the head trains had
eat the tops The animals was notliil more
than mechanical machines. | actually saw
one hoss hobhle along at his usual gait 4 full
half mic after he was deal The poor, dried
up old felcr had sn little life in him that he
didn't know wiicn it left, and hi, homes and
skin iiSt went rich. along till stumble tunl.
bled him over.
"Well, when our hoses died OF we left be-
hind wagons, pervisiois. tools and everything
but the little colI'i pack on our backs.
1t soon got to be every fe!c. for hiil!s i ami
lnjun take the hndmost. Som. of my com
pany got in with parties who was still
crawlin' along with OK teams, but l plisl,ct!
right ahead afoot, and tuck the desperate,
chances of ,,ttin' Il lite of grub here and
there on the road. 1 walked right along 10y
the OK wagons and by lots of hoss teams
Nearly naked and half starved, | finally got
to the Humboldt river. | found n big party
to rest their stock, wash Clothes, bake bread
and the like.
II was rough looking customer; the wllst
In all that congregation. had on an old red
roundabout or warmer, as we call it, that Id
worn all the way from Pike, jean trousers
that vas ready to drop of me AMI Il pair of
moccaSins that got from Shoshonr lnjun
for q iarkknfe. \ more devastated crittel
nor what | was you never seed. y man at
the camp tuck pity on me, and, slioyin' me
two pairs Of green baize drawers, told me if
Id wash 'ein l. might l:;1v, one pair for my
trouble.
"As the drawers w,;s sound and much bet
ter than my old laitaiooms, | iunl,ed at til"
ch,,nce SO washed the articles and hun.
'em up on bunch of wiicrs at the edge of
the river to dry. Presently the iclier come
md tuck one pair, leavin' the nil!"r for me.
He was a little spinoil bit of Il Gus, while
was tall and even at that time, starved as l
was. weighed nigh OH to lGo pounds. | tuck
the drawers and went some ,i!-'Hnrc down the
river from the r',n:>. where ! cot behind Il
bunch of willcrs, ont of 81 Iii of ;.ic viullil
folks, to make my toilet. The waShin' and
dryin' had slruHk tie drawers to st'il an tx
tent that it tuck me 'bou: half an hour to git
inter EN- They was skin tight and lacked
six inches of rpachin down to my ankle jntS
was an amazin' sight. looked for all the
world like Il nakod man painted green from
the waist down TO the calves ot the legs.
81 wakel UP and down :h, l,ul4k Of the
stream for a long time before could collect
my feelin's sufficient to ventui' back to camp
When reviewed myself over felt so modest
that went aud looked for my old brcevhes,
but had throwcd EN- into til" river in the
l+1,,
Presumed my walk and my eoycrtations AS
l promernat!ed up and down thar by tue
waters e.igc my long, slim, green legs made
me look like o,c OF these ere ily ,-the-crceks
q crane, or some si.n kind Of a widim' water
fowl.
'..As there was all kinds Of Lialued fools a
bangi.l' away among the rottonwoorls and
wllcrS skiri;' the river. slootin ut bout
everything i'll sight, begun 10 be iuigltily'
nfecrtl of beiu taken for some new kind of a
big crane of the wilderness. When Id got
my courage up to the stickin' pint | went
back to the camp.
"As soon as come i'll sight there was n
grand commotion. Everybody roared and
laughed. some rollin' themselves on the ground
and roarin' till they was black in the face.
offered to lick three OF four Of The Wust of the
roarers, but nary man of EN- could keep his
face straight long enough to fight me. Fin
ally. like Bayter's hog went off in drove
BY myself and sat down in the outskirts ct
camp, whar l began preparations for again
takin to the road To keep the scorchin' sun
from bul.,il' my ankles 1 got some strong
cloth and made straps. so could strap the
legs of the drawers dot:n to ,ny noccasins
Then was green from hips to feet
"When got up to pursue my way was so
tightly cased i'll from my hips down that
could hardly bend my knee j'ints but pres
emily the drawers limbered up little at that
pint In passii along by the wagon trains
that overlook had to stand ell the fun that
people seed fit to poke at me, and it was not
little. Men whooped and roared as l came
in sight, and the winnlin sittin i'll the front
parts Of the wagons laughed till tears made
streaks down their faces through the allali
dust. When one woman got sight of me
every female critter in the wagon had got to
have look. 1t was: For Gods sake, Sally,
Jane, Betsy, look here. and i'll mint the
whole front end of the wagon would be filed
with faces peepin' out at me through long sun
bonnets. Why, they'd even hold up the
babies TO let them have look at Inc.
AT times the uproar would be sich that the
people in and about the wagons half mile
ahead would all be lookin' back to see what
was up, and sometimes the captains of trains
would come chargin' back under whip and
spur to investigate. What made me look wuss
than otherwise would was the fact of my
roundabout bein' red; the red aggravated the
green and the green the red. You Let
skipped along pretty lively past the wagons,
except when was obliged to stop to ask for
drink of water or q bite of grub As hove
i'll sight some feler would sing out: 'Hurrah!
Here comes the great crane of the deserts!
and another: oh, the legs of him.! Some
called me the Green Dragon of the Pains
and one old fellow declared that 1 was the
'wingless flamingo of the inland lakes bird
he had been i'll search of for years.
"Every train l overlook had some new